ADT Security Services

ADT Security Services

November 29, 2005

ADT Security services, Home offices: Kansas City, KS; Rochester, NY. Local Office: Pleasanton, CA Issues: Failure to appear at scheduled service call. Rude dealings from service center. Extreme discourtesy in lack of communication regarding scheduling/cancelling service calls. Lack of respect for customers' time. Mercenary attitude--no sense of company goodwill, reputation. Bottom line: I could not trust ADT to actually respond or respond correctly, to a call in the event they received notice that there was a fire or intruder in my house. You will NEVER be able to reach the local office. A lot of money to pay for zero peace of mind. My story: I bought a house in August 2005 that had an ADT system installed by the prior owner. Although the seller left the ADT manual for operation, it immediately became obvious that I could not operate the ADT system because I had no password. I called ADT to enquire how to recode the system so that I could use it. ADT's response was that since I was not an ADT customer, ADT could and would do nothing, but that if I agreed to a new 2-year service contract at about $30 per month, ADT would alarm the house and provide a password. I finally obtained the password from the seller through my realtor, and was able to arm the system according to the manual's instructions. I was not living in the house, and heard from my neighbor after several days that the alarm was going off constantly. He only heard it at night when all was quiet, because it doesn't actually sound except inside the house, and so appears useless to begin with. I tried re-arming another time with the same result. I then de-armed the alarm and decided to ignore it. A few days later, it turns out the alarm was again sounding, though I had not set it nor had anyone intruded into the house. I called ADT to ask them to come out and completely disarm and disconnect the system. ADT tried several times to give me instructions over the phone to do this myself, but I asked that ADT's technician perform the operation because I have no tools, no skills in this area, and didn't want to be electrocuted or to fail to do it thoroughly and correctly. I argued that since ADT had profited from the prior owner's purchase of the system and subscription for a long time, it was the least ADT could do to disable the system when ADT's subscriber abandoned it, since it has become a nuisance to me and my neighbors. Dealing with ADT by telephone was immensely frustrating. I first called a local ADT number in my area code (including from solicitations I received in the mail), and that forwarded to some national ADT call center in the midwest. I told my story and ADT told me I would have to talk to the local ADT office here. I asked for a local ADT number, and was given one, and when I called that number and told my story, ADT put me on hold for a minute and FORWARDED ME TO THE NATIONAL ADT OFFICE AGAIN! And again, the national ADT office told me I had to take this up with the local ADT office. Regardless of who from ADT calls you and from where, any number you dial will divert to the national ADT center, including the number they just called you from for local service. In addition, every time I called, ADT asked my telephone number, which I gave, even though I am not a subscriber and didn't expect to be found in ADT's computer this way. Each time, however, ADT mis-identified me as one or another person in their database!!! Does that give you comfort that they will correctly find your house when it is being burgled? The company representative at the national ADT call center indicated in very unfriendly terms that ADT owed no obligation to me because I was not a subscriber. The ADT representative tried to argue with me about California property law, telling me that the malfunctioning alarm was my responsibility as the new owner. I advised him that he was probably not in a position to give legal advice regarding the law of California real estate, nor to know what my purchase contract provided for. I asked to speak to someone in a management position, and did get a man who listened politely and finally told me he would arrange an appointment through the local ADT office for the following Monday. There is a 5-hour window during which I had to be available at the house. He indicated he could not assure the local ADT office would agree to do the service call without charging me, but I argued that this was the company's duty, as described above. He said unless I heard otherwise, the call would be made by the local office as scheduled. At about 10:00 am, just to be safe, to avoid traveling to the house and missing work for no reason, on Monday morning, I called the national ADT call center again to find out if my call was really scheduled. I was assured it was, and again told that I had to be there from 12-5 pm, and that the window for the call could not be narrowed. I left my office and camped in the house. At about 1 pm, I received a message on my cell phone from the local ADT office telling me that the scheduled call would not take place because the technician who would be coming was "still on vacation". I called, reached the national ADT call center again, and told them it was not acceptable to schedule AND CONFIRM an appointment, get me to travel so far and miss work, and then cancel the call. They checked with the local ADT office, returned to the phone, and assured me that someone would be out that day. At about 2:30pm, I received a call from either the local ADT office or national ADT service center, which I couldn't hear due to poor cell service; the call broke off very quickly. I received no second call. At about 3:20, I called the national ADT service center to find out if someone was really coming, or if the aborted call was some half-hearted attempt to tell me no one was coming. The person at ADT told me she'd look into it and call me back. I did not receive the promised call back. At about 4pm I called again, and, after a long wait on hold, was finally informed there was an "issue" about who would pay for the service call. The local ADT service office was apparently refusing to send a technician out until this was resolved. This was the first I was hearing about it, after waiting 4 HOURS for a CONFIRMED, SCHEDULED CALL. I was to wait to hear further. By 5pm, the outside of my "window", I had received no call. At about 6 pm, I got a message on my cell phone that the service technician would be coming "this evening," and that ADT would "waive the overtime fee" (thanks a lot!), but that I would be charged the regular service fee. There was no indication that anything was left up in the air, no indication that I needed to call back to confirm, just a plain message that the ADT service call would be made. Again, a return call number was given, but turned out to be the national ADT call center number. At 8pm, I called ADT (national center) again to find out what was going on. The ADT call center person was unable to contact the local ADT service branch. She read through the log notes and told me that the local ADT service manager had apparently at first agreed to make the service call and waive all charges, then changed his mind and determined to charge me, and that the 6pm call was apparently intended to enquire whether I still wanted them to come under those circumstances. The level of communication was so poor, I don't even think the person who called understood that he had never asked me to return the call or to confirm whether or not I was willing to pay the charges. He apparently thought calling and telling me they would be coming out was the same as telling me I had to call ADT yet again (to the national call center, naturally) to confirm and agree. At about 8:30, I had my last conversation with the national ADT call center. I was told that an ADT technician could still come, but that ADT would have to charge me not only the standard service charge but now also the overtime charge--presumably because it was outside the 12-5pm window ADT HAD SET AND FAILED TO HONOR for the original call. A little haggling and holding on the line finally cleared up that ADT would only charge me the regular service call charge. My other option--and clearly what ADT was pushing for--was to schedule the call again for the next day. I asked when the ADT tech would come, and again, was told it would have to be a window from 12pm to 5pm!!!! I complained and said that ADT and its local representative were so poor at meeting ADT's own commitments, why would I agree to sit 5 hours again? and also that I believed, at a minimum, to make up for all the inconvenience they had caused me, they should be willing to commit to a specific time, or make mine the first appointment of the day. While the ADT call person expressed some symphathy, there was no offer to do anything other than SOP. At the current moment, it is 1:30 pm on the "next day", and I have yet to hear anything from ADT national service center or the local center regarding the scheduled service call. I do not for one moment believe they will actually show up. Bottom line: would you trust this company to actually respond to a call in the event they received notice that there was a fire or intruder in your house? I don't think so. It's a lot of money to pay for zero peace of mind. There will be a time when I want to pay for full security service at the house. That provider will not be ADT, you can bet on it.

John

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